The Path Ahead

Is not always clear.

My relative silence the last couple of weeks has been a combination of a factors. One, as referenced here, has been the insistance of my muses that I write this story. Well, at 12.5K it’s complete but for the last scene, which I’m struggling with. It’ll get done, I just need to take a step back. Endings are hard, and I don’t want to push this one. I wasn’t expecting to write a novella when I started, so I want to take care that I treat the piece and my characters well. Real life has been hectic of late, with inlaws visiting and so forth, so there’s been little time to do much else.

Life should be returning to normal soon. I think. Well, as normal as my life gets!

The path ahead, though, is unclear. I’ve no doubt that I’ll be writing, but Sommer made me think. No, I’m not cursing her for it! Granted, she made me think in ways I don’t think she intended…because I can’t write outside my box if I don’t know what that box is. You see, the 12.5K novella is a f/f piece that has been described by a beta reader as powerful and has gotten some very nice initial feedback from another.

That reaction sat with me, and has me thinking about what kind of direction I want to write in.

I think my Voyeur series is moving in a decent general direction, so I’m going to post the beginning of that tomorrow(I think). But I’m stepping back and reevaluating things. When I first stepped off on this path, I thought I knew where I was headed. But, the further along I went, the more clouded things became. I almost feel I was forcing things, forcing my writing. And now, now that this one piece, this novella, has been written, I think I know the feeling I want to have when I’m writing. And I know I want to elicit powerful responses in my readers.

So.

That’s that. Makes sense, right? {grin} Don’t worry…it doesn’t to me, either. But we’ll figure it out. And eventually, the sun will break through, and the path will clear.

Do you know what circles really are, Robin? Or rather, that feeling that you are going in circles?

That’s just pacing. That’s knowing there’s something over the rise, or just inside that bank of fog, that you’re really not sure you want to see, hear, deal with, or maybe just pass. There’s nothing wrong with it. At times it’s a necessary process to go through.

Because if you rush forward, you end up facing something you weren’t ready for, and things don’t go as well as they could have.

Trust me, I speak from experience 😉

But life is boring if you don’t come across obstacles that make you stop and think. And sometimes, it’s a matter of stopping and acknowledging the road behind you, and realizing how far you’ve come.

Good for you for writing a novella, Scarlett! You’ll find that perfect ending. You will. I know it. Don’t forget to stop, turn around and look back at the road you were just on, because sometimes that helps put the future in better perspective. It does for me anyway – also a great friend of mine say’s, “don’t worry Neve, no one really knows what the hell their doing…” I love that.

You never know how far you can go with a project until you try it. I went way off my usual beaten path when I decided to write a podcast. There are times even now when I look at what I’ve got going and I think I can’t handle it, but somehow, I keep plowing ahead.

Ask yourself what you want to do, and what the hell would you be scared of doing. If the answer is the same to both questions, you have your path.